My father, Pfc. William W. Taylor Jr. served in the 100th. Infantry Division, 399th. Regiment, Co. A. His Division saw duty in France and Germany spending 185 consecutive days on the battle line. He wrote nearly 300 letters home chronicling his service to our country. Like so many combat veterans of the War he spoke little of his experiences, but these letters tell the story.

My Hero

As a young boy my heroes were from books. Fighting men like Captain Horatio Hornblower and Francis Marion "the Swamp Fox" fired my imagination. More than anything I wanted to be like them, strong, brave, and heroic. One day, while rummaging around my father's closet I came upon a large box. Arranged within the box were 5 or 6 dusty, dirty cigar boxes. Inside the boxes were hundreds of old letters. They were numbered, in sequence and in the original envelopes. I opened the first letter and started to read. From that day on, my hero became not Horatio Hornblower or Francis Marion, but Pfc. William Wellington Taylor, Jr., my father. The letters were his letters home from World War II.

NOTE: The letters in this collection appear in reverse order. To read them in chronological order starting with the first letter go to the link at the bottom of this page entitled "Read letters in order starting with Letter 1"

Letter Collections

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

About Letter 213

Company A gets a "snazzy" new letterhead. "Regimental insignia is bursting forth all over the place these days." Bill's unit is scheduled to move tomorrow but he is skeptical about it. He makes the usual request for food and notes the BBC reports that the U.S. Fleet is shelling the "very daylights" out of Japan.